Which country (within the Anglosphere) makes the best music?

[The Monkey]

Some of the best known acts of each country:

The UK
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Queen, The Smiths, Radiohead, Blur, Oasis

Ireland
U2, My Bloody Valentine, Sinead O'Connor

The United States
Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Nirvana, R.E.M.

Canada
The Band, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell

Australia
The Bee Gees, AC/DC, Nick Cave

New Zealand
Crowded House, ???

Puh, that took a while. (I tried putting them in chronological order too.)

Anyway, here's the poll!

[TheAntipop]

I think I'd probably have to say America based on my favourite bands. In general, the American punk/hardcore scene is leages ahead of the UK's with bands like Hot Water Music, Against Me!, Fugazi and they've also the Hydra Head circuit with Isis, Botch (RIP), Big Business, Oxbow, Pelican and all the rest of the unique, mindblowing metal acts, then the indie over there has actually managed to stand tall (Modest Mouse, for example) and not consist of crappy throwaway bands but then Canada is where it's at for indie n' stuff (Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire) and on that note, they've also A Silver Mt. Zion/Godspeed You! and a whole bunch of other Constellation Records names. Stuff like The Sound of Animals Fighting, all of the anticon records rappers like Themselves, Why?. ****, our hip hop scene is so dire when you compare Dizzee Rascal to someone like Doseone.

The UK has some brilliant bands out there, I could name loads that I enjoy from Autechre to Hot Chip to Mogwai, but eh, we cover all the gold up with shit for the most part. I'm all but willing to go ahead and jump ship the next time I hear another crappy indie/computer band (glitchyz lolololooololo, you cray-zay kids, you) or see another bunch of skinny kids with silly hair try to play metal after somehow gaining a support slot by PAYING to play.

You wouldn't believe how much I want to go live in the Bay Area or something. Gainesville, anywhere! I cringe everytime I'm in London when it comes to our music culture.

[Iron Kat]

People are going to biased, aren't they??!! If you come from the UK then you most likely vote UK (like me). And likewise if you're from the US then you will vote US. Then again, that may not the be the case at all and I may just be talking a load of BS, in which case, fair enough!!!
Edit: Monkey, you've not even listed Muse!!! They are definitely the best band to come out of the UK!!!

[The Monkey]

Edit: Monkey, you've not even listed Muse!!! They are definitely the best band to come out of the UK!!!
They aren't nearly as famous as the other ones. If I was to list every British act it would take forever.

[JNightshade]

I voted Canada in terms of modern-day music. Probably the UK overall though.

[StardogChampion]

Scotland
The Proclaimers - http://tinysong.com/SGR
Lord Rockingham's XI - http://tinysong.com/13wi

We win.

Anyway, I like American bands the best, but British bands pushed music more and inspired most of those American bands, so I'll vote UK. Every countries modern day music sucks (2000+)

I didn't realise Neil Young was Canadian.

[Stigmata]

We have Metric, Death From Above 1979, and Wolf Parade. :D

[Qonfused]

My choice: Iceland
From your choices: UK just because how it's influenced so much.

[Cormeh]

We have Metric, Death From Above 1979, and Wolf Parade. :D
Aye, well, We've got Michelle McManus. She's garbage, but she'd eat every other act.

I've gotta say, the majority of my favourite bands are British. Since the Verve have written and released Urban Hymns already, this vote is a no-brainer.

[Bad^Hat]

People are going to biased, aren't they??!! If you come from the UK then you most likely vote UK (like me). And likewise if you're from the US then you will vote US.
And if you're from New Zealand, you'll obviously vote for... anything but New Zealand. :P

Meh, I listen to mostly American music, so I gotta go with that. There's some great kiwi music out there, but we're hardly innovators on any grand scale.

[Stigmata]

New Zealand has Flight of the Conchords.

I take it all back. They're unbeatable.

[edit] Especially since you guys pronounce it Neeuw Zeilend. ^____________^

[Viperidae]

UK. You guys may have sucked for classical music, but you've sure made up for it in the 20th.

[Ennui]

US. Although Zeppelin very nearly swayed my vote. Hendrix and Dylan, though...

[undertone]

We have Metric, Death From Above 1979, and Wolf Parade. :D

Metric formed in New York, they're a pseudo canadian band.

I would say canadian music is currently pushing further ahead these days, but thats also because canadian radio is forced to play a certain percentage of canadian material in a day, which gives me a slanted view on today's music.

Over all though, i think america has kicked everyone's ass in music in general. Im not sure i can honestly say in one single genre they've beat out any other country (except in country), but in the overall scheme of things they have a much higher output of high quality acts then other western countries.

[Dalamari]

UK has better bands, US has better solo artists

[Iron Kat]

UK has better bands, US has better solo artists

I agree with the solo artists, especially when I think of Joshua Radin!!!
For those of you who don't know about him, here's the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Radin.

[Polaris]

1) United Kingdom
2) USA
3) Ireland
4) Canada

[Cavalry]

tbh, music with english is blah, unless its trance, and the best tends to come from Holland.

[Shift]

I would say UK, mainly because most of my favourite artists are from the UK.

[Kula Meenur]

None. Amsterdam ftw.

[soulslicer]

California is the reason American rock is immensely popular. It seems like all the best American bands come from there.

[Geogaddi]

My choice: Iceland



I think that in population size to good music ratio Iceland wins hands down.

m?m? Sigur R?s?

Can you name a shitty Icelandic band?

[VirusType2]

People are going to biased, aren't they??!! If you come from the UK then you most likely vote UK (like me). And likewise if you're from the US then you will vote US. Then again, that may not the be the case at all and I may just be talking a load of BS, in which case, fair enough!!!
Edit: Monkey, you've not even listed Muse!!! They are definitely the best band to come out of the UK!!!

I doubt that. I'm in the US and I greatly prefer music from the UK. They seem to usually be pioneers in every genre.

Muse has not achieved legendary status. There are a ton of monumental acts not even listed.


Anyway, for metal, I'd probably go with Sweden, but since that isn't an option it makes it easier to choose.

I'm going with UK, as much as I love the Doors, AC/DC and some of the others outside of my choice.

[Adabiviak]

Given your list of musicians, I'd choose the UK. Given my own music collection, the US (but it's pretty close).

[Shift]

Muse has not achieved legendary status.

Maybe not legendary status yet but they are definately one of the biggest and best bands to come out of the UK, and one of the biggest and most popular in the world at the moment, and they are only 30, so in time they will be defiantely in the hall of fame. Even Radiohead are jealous of the popularity, and no thats not a biased opinion, I love Radiohead just as much as I love Muse.

[Vegeta897]

UK. You guys may have sucked for classical music, but you've sure made up for it in the 20th.
And the 21st

[kazsymonds]

I voted uk, but i like american music equally (well almost!)

[kazsymonds]

And for the love of god add foo fighters and nirvana to the us list!

[Letters]

US, but not based on any of those listed. :P

[StardogChampion]

And for the love of god add foo fighters and nirvana to the us list!
Nirvana are already on it, and Foo Fighters shouldn't be anywhere close to it.

[Dinkleberry]

Funny really - I consider America a cultural wasteland (apart from jazz) but a couple of my favourite artists come from there.

[The Monkey]

You guys shouldn't be arguing over my list, I just wrote down the most famous artists from each country that I could think of at the moment, I'm bound to have missed plenty of big ones.

[99.vikram]

Hmm...Boards of Canada vs. everything else in the universe...

I went with the UK.

[undertone]

Actually the more i think about it, the harder it is to say whether the UK or the USA has been making the best music. There are so many great american bands that have done a lot for music, but there are so many more british bands that have changed the course of music forever.

Shift, you're so full of shit on the jealousy point. Radiohead would never have made albums like Kid A or Amnesiac if they were fighting a popularity contest. They've released 3 music videos since 2000, and released 4 studio albums. You'd think if they wanted to be more popular they'd do a little more self promotion.

The only thing i can agree on really with mostly everyone in this thread is that canadians have just failed in music. This partly has to do with our low population and low population density (33 million people with 3.2 people per square kilometer). Hell, most of our population resides in a little area called the golden horseshoe, while the rest of the country is pretty much made up of small towns with smaller sized cities spread out, separated by vast distances.

[TheAntipop]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion are based in Canada. To me, music is at it's peak of brilliance whenever they release an album. We haven't got anything on them.

Course, thats my opinion innit,

[mocho loco]

ahhhhhh I wish u would have put caribean music! They have some good music too! My opinion

[Dog--]

Canada - Rush.

Asshole OP.

[Van_Halen]

How could you forget Van Halen? Lynard Skynard? Alice In Chains? (Nirvana sucks in comparison, so don't try.) ZZ Top? Aerosmith? G'N'R? Metallica? Montrose? The blessing from above, Sammy Hagar? Pearl Jam? NIN? Twisted Sister? Pantera?That's all I can think of at the moment someone help me out please?

(All these are American btw, cept for NIN, I'm not sure of them.)